TD Jakes - Daddy I See The Wood
Let us not forget that it is by his stripes we are healed, that he was wounded for our transgressions, and he was bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, we are healed. And let us not be so arrogant that we blame the Romans or the Jews, because the truth of the matter is it is our sins that crucified the Lord: our indulgences, our excessive behavior, our compulsive behaviors. It is us that crucified the Lord. He redefined what love is. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". This was how God expressed love. This is God's love language. It's not acts of kindness, it's not pleasant words, it's not service, it's not touching. It's dying is God's love language. When God gets ready to show how deep and intense and rich his love is, he does it by dying. So much so that the Bible called the cross, his passion.
Can you conceive that God loves you with such passion, that the only way he could find to express his utter adoration, his complete enthrallment with you, his absolute fascination with you, his complete love for you, his caring for what you've been through and how you've suffered and how you've been doing, that Jesus is the lover of our soul. And when he got ready to make love to us, he didn't rent a room. He borrowed a tomb and laid on the cross and died and called it his passion. "God so loved". "God," the infinite power. "So," to the infinite degree. "Loved," the infinite emotion. "The world," the infinite chaos. "That he gave," the ultimate gift, "his only begotten Son," the ultimate sacrifice. "That whosoever believeth", believeth on him, "shall not perish, but have everlasting life".
In our text in Genesis, the reason I read both Old Testament and New Testament, and it seems like there are two different stories, but they are the same truth. What happens between Abraham and Isaac also happens between God and Christ. So here's Abraham and his son. They both go up together. And the Bible says that when Jesus went to the cross, the skies went black and there was a conversation that ensued between the Father and the Son. Hm-mm, yeah, yeah. And it occurs to me that the oddity of Genesis 22 exists in the fact that since they both went up together, why did Isaac call for Abraham? And he says, "My father"? And then Abraham reveals himself, "Here am I, my son". It makes me to know that God reveals himself to his Son. He reveals himself to his people. Abraham revealed himself. "Here, am I. Behold".
See, some of you will never be able to see God because God is revealed; he is not explained. And because you worship at the throne of your intellect, you are not eligible for faith because you have to seek him while he may be found. Knock, and the door shall be opened. Ask, and it shall be given. If you're not curious, he's not revealing. If you don't ask, he doesn't answer. If you don't knock, the door wouldn't open. Oh, that's why you gotta seek him right now while he may be found. You're waiting on God to take the obligation to reveal himself to somebody who's not looking. But you got to be aggressive about this thing and start seeking this thing. And Isaac says to his father, "Father, father," and the father answers, "Here, am I".
Now, there's an interesting dynamic going on between the father and the son. It is the dynamic that always goes on between father and son. I want you to duplicate me, okay? All the while you're growing up, I want you to duplicate me. A young man came to me the other day and said, "Teach me how to be a man". This is why fathers are important to sons. And so when they both go up on Mount Moriah, he is duplicating him. So the text here is not only duplicative of the relationship between the father and the son, it is a preview of a coming attraction between what God is going to do with his Son. And because Abraham is his friend, he says, "I'm gonna let you in on what it feels like. I'm gonna let you wait till you're 99 years old, and finally let you have a son who is the love of your life, a son that you could not have on your own. And then I'm going to ask you to offer him up because I want you to understand how my heart feels about Mount Calvary. I want you to experience on Mount Moriah because, Abraham, you're my friend and I want you to duplicate me".
So when Abraham starts walking, looking for a place that he doesn't know where it is, the Bible says, "When he was yet three days off, he looked up and saw the place afar off". Write it down. Three days off, three days off, three days off, three days off. There's another three, again, there's a three, there's a three. I told you that all the religions come together every 33 years. And so the Bible said that "when Abraham was just three days off, he looked up and saw the place". The place doesn't become clear to you when you first start walking. You have to walk with God a while before you can see the place and the purpose and the reason. One of my sons said to me, daddy, "How come you're telling me things now that you didn't tell me when I was younger"? I said, "It wasn't time yet".
There are some revelations that it takes time to get. "After you have walked with me a while, after you have suffered a while," God said, "I'll establish you". So as Abraham walked up on the mountain top, he is duplicating what God is going to do in Christ. That's why he told the servant, "Stay here. Me and the lad go yonder to worship". In other words, "This is personal. I don't need your point of view on this. This is between a father and his son". Can I go deeper with this? All right, this is Potter's House kind of stuff. So the father and the son are working this thing out together because the covenant is between the father and the son, and the son is obedient to the father because the father woke him up that morning and said, "Me and the lad are going yonder to worship".
It is the obedience of the son that determines the outcome of the father. You're running around talking about you need a father. But do you know how to be a son? You can't be rebellious and draw a father into your life. There has to be a submission. I have to know how to be a father. You have to know how to be a son. The point of me reading both texts is that they are not duplicative; they replicate each other. There is a difference between duplication and replication. What is going on in Genesis is also going on in John. It is between the father and the son. I took the same scene and changed the point of view. The same scene that you shout about and call him a redeemer for is the same scene that I'm talking about. I just changed the angle of the camera and recognized that what Jesus did, he did it in obedience to his Father.
That's why he went to the Garden of Gethsemane and said, "Father, if it be thy will, pass this bitter cup from me," and then finally submitted and said, "Not my will but thine be done". So now they are in agreement. There cannot be covenant without agreement. What happened on Calvary is an agreement between the Father and his Son, and the agreement was: Trust me. I'm gonna take you through something that it looks like you can't get out of. But you gotta trust me that when I get through working it out, it's gonna all work together for the good of them that love the Lord who are the called, according to his purpose. Are y'all following me? So when Abraham takes his son up on the mountaintop, the Bible said that he laid upon him the wood, and the son said, "Daddy, I see the wood. I feel the weight. You put the weight on me. You put the weight on me for a tree I didn't cut. You have laid on me the iniquity of the world. Daddy, I see the wood. I see the knife".
The knife is still in the hand of the father. You can't get that twisted because the knife is in the right hand. "I wouldn't trust anybody else to cut me, but you". That's why, in the Old Testament, fathers circumcised their sons because I trust you to love me enough not to nick me. You might hurt me but you won't nick me, because you love me too much. So the knife is in the hand of the father, but the wood is in the hands of the son. "Daddy, I see the wood".
And Jesus is carrying the cross like Isaac is carrying the wood, and the weight of it is so heavy that he begins to stumble, carrying the weight of the sins of the world. Not one man, not two men, not his generation, not just his nationality, not just black folks, not just white folks, not just brown folks. He laid upon him the iniquity of all of us: gay folks, straight folks, men and women, Democrats and Republicans, every tribe, every tongue, every kindred. He laid enough wood on him that it was so heavy that Jesus began to stumble up under the weight of the cross. And when he began to stumble, Simon of Cyrene (Cyrene is a country in the parts of Africa) began to lift the weight of the cross up off of him because surely he had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
So the two texts are staring at each other, and both of them are private. That's why the sun refuses to shine. It's not that people didn't go up on the mountain with Jesus, but they couldn't see it because God caused a blackout. Because what happened on Calvary is God swearing by himself. It is God in covenant with himself, like he was in Genesis when he said, "Let us". If he said, "Let us to make man," then he says, "Let us to save man". His right hand and his mighty arm have gotten him the victory. And God blacked it out because he says, "This is none of your business. You are an heir to the covenant, but you are not the one I made the covenant with". I can leave something to my children without them being present and they can be an heir and never sign a paper. We are heirs of salvation. Y'all don't hear me. But the paperwork was signed between the Father and the Son.
"Father, if it be thy will, pass this bitter cup from me. Father, into thy hands, I commend my Spirit". Why is he talking to the Father from the cross? Because the covenant is between the Father and the Son, and the glory pours through this covenant down to us who believe. And he has caused his goodness to pass by us. There's a glory in here right now, walking up and down the aisles between the Father and the Son. And when you replicate me... now look at him. He's replicating my position, but not my apparel. He's still his own person. He still has his own identity. He still has his own style, but he has assumed my posture. Thank you, Lord, that you didn't rob me of my identity, that you still let me be an individual, that you still let me have an opinion, that you still let me express myself.
And as long as I'm standing in your posture, you don't care whether I got on blue jeans or a cleric robe. You don't care what I put on or how I dress. That's all up to me. But you want me in the posture of a son, to position myself as you have positioned yourself. So shall I eat of the fat of the land. When I act like my daddy, I get what my daddy had. When I move, like my daddy said move, I get what my daddy said I could have. When I talk like my daddy told me to talk, I'll receive what my daddy said I could have. But I don't have to be totally like him to be in the position. Look at somebody and say, "Assume the position".
If you assume the position, God will open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing you won't have room enough to receive. If you assume the position, the weapon formed against you shall be able to prosper. If you assume the position, God, will bless you. Thank you very much. Here is the position of the son: "Daddy, I see the wood. You have not revealed how you're going to do it". "I see the wood" means, I'm looking at that which is tangible. I see the wood but I don't see the ram. I see the wood but I don't see the solution. I see the situation but I don't see the salvation.
And this is what makes us believers, when we can say, "Daddy, I see the wood". "Don't worry about it. Don't worry about what you don't see. Don't worry about what I didn't show you. Don't worry about what I didn't tell you. Don't worry about the ram that's climbing up on the other side of the mountain, that you cannot see. It's not time for you to see that yet. I'm gonna reveal this to you in stages. I'm gonna do an apocalypse. I'm gonna take you from faith to faith and from glory to glory. And every time I lift my skirts, I'm gonna show you more of my glory. But what you couldn't handle at first, I'm gonna deliver it in stages. I already got a ram coming up the other side of the mountain, but it's not time for you to see that yet. All I want you to see is the wood".
So he looked up at the things that are seen, for the things that are seen are temporal. It is the thing that is not seen that is eternal and the ram is not seen yet. And I don't know who I came to preach to, but the Lord sent me here to tell you your ram is not seen yet. I know the weight is heavy. I know the cross has got you bent over. I know your arms are overloaded with wood you didn't chop. I know you're carrying other people's problems and other people's situations, but you haven't seen everything yet. I have already got a way of escape prepared for you that I am going to bring you out of your struggle. And you keep praying to me about the wood. You see the wood but you don't see the ram. There is a ram coming up the backside of the mountain. A substitute that's about to take your place, that's about to deliver you and set you free.
And so that all you got to do is carry this wood. In this season of your life, if you just carry this wood, God is going to work out his will in your life. Can I go just a little bit deeper? I'm almost finished. "Daddy, I see the wood". "Wait a minute, son. We don't look at the things that are seen. We walk by faith, not by sight. And you keep talking to me about what you see, but I want you to believe what you have not seen". Whoo! I don't know who I'm talking to. "Not only do I want you to believe what you have not seen, I want you to praise me for what you have not seen. I want you to rejoice for what you have not seen. I want you to give me the praise for what you have not seen. Because if you praise me for the invisible, I will do the impossible".
Let me take a minute and give you a chance to digest that. If you praise him for the invisible, God will do the impossible. Don't just praise him for what he has done, but praise him for what he's about to do. Praise him with the weight on you. Praise him with the wood on you. Praise him with a tear in your eye. Praise him with all hell breaking loose. For the next 30 seconds, I need the sacrifice of praise. Me and the lad are going under the sacrifice. I don't need the praise that comes easy. I need the praise that is weighted. I need the praise that's overloaded. I need the praise that's in trouble. I want somebody going through chaos to give God a crazy praise right in the middle of your chaos. I need somebody that will praise him with your mouth, your mouth, your hands, your feet, your body. Let everything that have breath, praise he the Lord.